The crux of their disagreement lies in a contract made in 1878, between the Sultanate of Sulu and the British North Borneo Company.

BBC: How do you solve a problem like Sabah?

Visitors to Kota Kinabalu, capital of the state of Sabah in eastern Malaysia, can take a trip back to colonial times on the newly refurbished North Borneo Railway.

CNN: ASIANOW - TIME Asia | Travel Watch | Detour

Special arrangements can be made to take the North Borneo Railway further afield, as far as Beaufort and even on the spectacular run over the Padas River to Tenom.

CNN: ASIANOW - TIME Asia | Travel Watch | Detour

The conflict is a relic of the colonial era when the Sultans of Sulu "leased" what used to be North Borneo to the British government for an annual sum of 5, 300 Mexican gold pieces.

WSJ: Michael Vatikiotis: Malaysia the Moderate Peacemaker

Newspapers are recounting harrowing tales of survivors of so-called death camps in North Borneo during World War II - while revealing the existence of what The Sun daily calls "hell holes" in present-day Malaysia.

CNN: ASIANOW - Asiaweek

Fort Defiance, a few blocks north, serves up fresh pasta, small plates like chicken liver pate with bacon-onion jam, and historically-inspired cocktails like the Colonial Cooler, a twist on the Pimm's Cup that was first mixed in British North Borneo in the 1920s.

BBC: A remote hook in New York��s harbour

Borneo island is divided among three countries: Indonesian territory in the south, two Malaysian states in the north and tiny Brunei on the north coast.

NPR: Ferry Capsizes In Malaysian River, 21 Missing